The Missouri State women’s basketball squad fell to 0-3 in Missouri Valley Conference play for the second-straight year after dropping a 75-67 decision to Wichita State Sunday afternoon at Hammons Student Center.
Lexee McDonnell turned in a career-high 24 points in the win for Wichita State, while Kiki Stephens scored 11 of her 17 points during a 13-minute span that saw the Shockers erase an early double-digit deficit by outscoring the Lady Bears 35-13 to take control of ballgame.
After both teams failed to score over the game’s first five minutes, the Lady Bears used a pair of 9-0 runs to build an early 12-point lead. Juniors Tiff Terwelp and Tahnee Balerio carried the offensive load for Missouri State in the opening half, scoring 12 and 11 points, respectively, and Balerio’s three-pointer with 5:30 left on the clock gave Missouri State its largest lead at 25-13. But the Shockers used a 16-4 spurt over the next 4:30 to even the score at 29-29 before a pair of Terwelp free throws with just two-seconds on the clock gave the Lady Bears a 31-29 advantage at the break.
Wichita State came out firing in the second period, grabbing a 36-35 advantage- their first since taking a 3-0 lead at the 15:35 mark in the first half- on an Antionette Wells jumper with 16:46 remaining. McDonnell hit her fourth three-pointer of the afternoon to extend the margin to 41-35 and Kyrie Kinder’s short jumper completed an 11-0 run and made it a 43-35 ballgame with 12:56 to play. Moments later, Stephens’ three-point play gave the Shockers their largest lead of the day at 48-38.
The Lady Bears made one final push, as sophomore forward Breton Wyett scored eight of her 10 points over the next 10 minutes to help trim Wichita State’s lead to 64-61 with just 2:08 to play.
But McDonnell came through once again, knocking down a 15-foot jumper in heavy traffic on the Shockers’ next possession to push the lead back to five points. Wichita State then put the game on ice by converting 6-of-6 free-throw attempts in the final 1:02 to wrap up their first conference win and improve to 6-7 overall.
The Shockers shot .517 (15-of-29) in the second half and knocked down 18-of-20 free-throw attempts on the afternoon.
Missouri State’s shooting woes continued Sunday, as the Lady Bears connected on 34.9% of their field-goal attempts, including a 3-of-18 performance from three-point range.
Balerio shrugged off a 5-for-21 shooting performance to lead Missouri State with 21 points before suffering an ankle injury in the final minute of play. Terwelp just missed her seventh double-double of the year, chipping in 18 points and nine rebounds.
Next up, the Lady Bears will kick off a two-game road swing on Thursday, Jan. 11 with a 6 p.m. contest against Indiana State at Hulman Center before meeting Illinois State in a 4:05 p.m. game next Saturday, Jan. 13, at Redbird Arena.
